Higher-order sensorimotor circuit of the brain’s global network supports human consciousness
bioRxiv September 23, 2020 Pengmin Qin, Xuehai Wu, Changwei W Wu et al. preprint
Local brain regions may support consciousness by acting as hubs within the brain's global network. Using resting-state fMRI data from people in various conscious states—NREM-sleep, REM-sleep, anesthesia, and brain injury patients—and a graph-theoretical measure for detecting local hubs, the authors identify higher-order sensory and motor regions whose degree centrality is significantly reduced during unconsciousness. These regions form a sensorimotor circuit that correlates with levels of consciousness. The findings suggest that integration of higher-order sensorimotor function may be a key mechanism of consciousness, opening novel perspectives for therapeutic modulation of unconsciousness.